insects

YEAR OF THE DRAGON FRIDAY!

Well folks, we’ve reached the end of our dragon theme week! We hope you have enjoyed our first theme week! We sure had fun searching the world for real dragons! Today we went searching into the fascinating insect world to find a dragon that flies! We bet you guessed our animal! Let’s meet…

MEET THE EMPEROR DRAGONFLY!

Range/Habitat: Europe-Asia/ near ponds, lakes

Diet: carnivore: tadpoles, butterflies

Length: up to 4” wingspan

Conservation Status: common

Fun Facts:

• Emperor Dragonflies are the largest species of dragonfly in the UK and one of the largest in Europe.
• Male emperor dragonflies have a large blue body and a green thorax.
• Female emperor dragonflies have all green bodies and thorax.
• Emperor dragonflies catch their prey while in flight.
• Emperor dragonflies are born underwater. They live in the nymph stage and take up to 2 years to reach adulthood.
• Emperor dragonflies are one of the fastest flying insects on the planet!

Emperor dragonflies are beautiful bugs! We love their iridescent colors! They can fly up to 25-30 miles per hour! WOW! Edmond wants to race some Emperor dragonflies! Who wants to join us?